Hot Chili and Chocolate from Vosges

In addition to their phenomenal bacon bar, Vosges also makes the Red Fire Exotic Candy Bar. This bar offers a combination of dark chocolate, Ceylon cinnamon, and Mexican ancho and chipotle chilis. Sweet at first bite, then fiery, it's a perfectly balanced combination of flavors.

Vosges also makes an Aztec cocoa with combined cocoa, cinnamon, peppers and vanilla bean.

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

The Pumpkin Spice Latte has returned to Starbucks. The seasonal drink only appears during the fall, and apparently there are people who wait on tenterhooks for it to arrive. Some of these people are celebrities who hang out on Twitter, and who tweet frantically back and forth to each other about whether the PSL has arrived, and if not, when will it, and why can't they get it early since they're all famous and everything? (This would be Mikey Way and Pete Wentz, if anyone cares.)

Unfortunately, I don't really get the Pumpkin Spice Latte Love. It's not a bad drink, with a nice balance of nutmeg and ginger, but it doesn't do much for me. It's too sweet, for starters, and for enders, it's too expensive, especially with the recent price hikes at Starbucks. If I'm going to toss out over four dollars for a Venti, I'll stick with my Venti Caramel Macchiato.

Bacon Chocolate Bars from Vosges

Vosges Haute Chocolate makes some of the most intriguing chocolate combinations out there. But one of the most intriguing is Mo's Bacon Bar. Sweet, applewood bacon, sea salt, and deep milk chocolate all combined in a single bar. (The bar also comes in dark chocolate.)

I was skeptical that bacon in a chocolate bar would be anything but, well, weird. Maybe even kind of gross. But one bite of this bar changed my mind. It's the perfect balance of salt and sweet, and the bacon and chocolate flavors are perfectly balanced. Vosges is a great place to go to try something aside from regular, humdrum chocolate, and Mo's Bacon Bar is a great place to start on your new chocolate adventure.

Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap

Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap is all natural, olive-oil based soap infused with natural oils. It's invigorating, a joy to use, and is safe for even sensitive skin. Dr. Bronner's also makes bar soaps and a variety of other skin care products as well as the liquid soaps

I've never tried anything other than the peppermint liquid soap, but this soap is a great way to wake up in the morning. It clears out the bleariness and can even help clear the sinuses if you tend to wake up a little congested. Unlike artificially scented bath gels and body washes, Dr. Bronner's provides a natural scent that won't disturb your allergies, and that will get you started off on the right foot every morning.

Neutrogena Wave

A new form of product in skin care, the Neutrogena Wave leaves your face feeling bright and clean and even a little tingly.

The Wave is a small, hand-held device that uses a disposable pad infused with a cleansing solution. When the pad is moistened, it builds up a slight foam. The vibration of the Wave then helps exfoliate and deep-cleanse your skin. It's easy to use in the shower, and you can actually see the results in the dead skin and oils left behind on the pad.

Better yet, the Wave is a reasonable price. Highly recommended.

Movie--The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I think I committed a fatal error in reading the original F. Scott Fitzgerald short story before I watched this movie. The movie, while sweeping and beautifully filmed and filled with excellent performances, bears almost no resemblance to the story, which caused me to make faces at it through most of the two-and-a-half hours of its running time.

In fact, the only element remaining of the original story is Benjamin Button's reverse aging. And even that conceit is modified. In the story, Benjamin acts like an old man when he appears to be an old man, and acts like a child when he appears to be a child. In the movie, he behaves more like a child during his older years, and like an old man suffering from dementia when he looks like a young child. More importantly, the reverse aging adds little to the story other than a gimmick and the chance for the movie makers to spend a great deal of money on make-up effects (and win Oscars for them, but that's another issue).

Overall, while I could see the movie had its merits, my enjoyment was greatly diminished by the complete departure from the source.

Haagen-Dazs Green Tea Ice Cream

Okay, so I'm on a bit of an ice cream kick, but I saw a couple of new ice cream flavors in the store the other day, so I grabbed them. One of them was Haagen-Dazs' new green tea ice cream.

The only place I've ever had green tea ice cream before was at my favorite sushi joint. This ice cream is actually a little better, I think. It's creamy and rich, with a strong green tea flavor. The green tea flavor comes from matcha green tea, which has a stronger flavor than most green tea, but also carries stronger antioxidant properties. How well those work when it's blended with cream and sugar to make this decadent ice cream is anybody's guess, but it's definitely tasty.